Breastpumps for use by nursing mothers are well known. They allow the nursing woman to express the breastmilk as necessary or convenient, and further provide collection of the breastmilk for later use. For some mothers, breastpumps may be a necessity, such as when the child has suckling problems, or if the mother has problems with excessive or deficient milk production, or soreness, deformation, or injury of the mammilla. Of particular instance herein is the situation confronting a mother where the infant is premature, and therefore is most always separated from the mother.
Electrically-driven breastpumps are commonplace, typically including a vacuum pump which has an electric motor that plugs into standard house current, and/or operates off of battery power. Advantages of this type of pump are convenience, ready controllability and regulation of the vacuum, and in many instances the ability to pump both breasts at once.
Electrically driven motorized breastpumps generally have a driving mechanism for generating the vacuum (negative pressure) to be applied at the breast geared to a particular sequence, or curve, of negative pressure increase (i.e., increasing suction), and then release. This is often aimed at reproducing in some sense the suckling action of a healthy infant during mature lactation, after the milk supply has been established.
Mothers with healthy full-term infants can usually breastfeed during the early days after birth. In the early days after birth, the maternal milk supply is limited, and includes colostrum. Colostrum ingestion in the very earliest stages of post-partum life is considered to be highly valuable to the newborn infant. Newborns have very small stomachs, and they remove only about 15 mL of colostrum during the first 24 hours of life. Colostrum is known to contain antibodies that are major components of the immune system, anti-inflammatory agents and growth factors that stimulate the development of the gut. During the early post-partum period when the mother is producing colostrum, the human newborn infant sucks in a unique sucking pattern, which is characterized by a rapid rate of sucking, and an irregular sucking rhythm (organization of sucking into bursts and pauses). After lactogenesis II (the milk “coming in”) this sucking pattern changes because human infants modify the sucking rhythm on the basis of available milk. The slower rate and regular rhythm of sucking after lactogenesis II result from the infants' integrating swallowing and breathing into the sucking bursts. Thus, the sucking pattern used during the first days post-birth (prior to lactogenesis II) is time-limited and unique to human breastfeeding infants. Several lines of evidence suggest that this sucking pattern plays a role in subsequent maternal milk output.
A mother may not be able to breastfeed within the first few days after birth. Additionally, not all infants are born full-term. Preterm or premature babies are often defined as babies born before 37 weeks gestation; however a “premature” infant may also be defined as one that has not yet reached the level of fetal development that generally allows life outside the womb. In the United States, the preterm birth rate has risen to 12-13% in recent decades. When a baby is born premature, the baby is often in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and may not be able to breastfeed. Thus, the mother is solely breast-pump dependent. Breast-pump dependent mothers do not experience this unique sucking pattern from their premature infants who are not capable of feeding directly from the breast. Because this unique sucking pattern appears to be a critical “first step” in establishing an adequate milk volume, breast pump-dependent mothers with premature infants may miss this critical stimulation, negatively affecting their ability to produce a sufficient amount of milk.